Map of Tanzania locating Arusha, where an attack on a church left three dead/AFP
RIYADH, May 13 – A Saudi arrested after a deadly attack a week ago killed three people in a packed church in Tanzania has been freed without charge, the government announced on Sunday.
“Saudi citizen Said bin Mohsen al-Mehri, who was arrested with other persons in Tanzania after the criminal attack on a church in Arusha in the north, has been freed,” said Prince Khaled ben Saud Khaled, a deputy to the Saudi foreign minister.
“No charge has been laid against him,” the official SPA news agency reported the prince as saying, adding that Mehri was “on his way home to the kingdom”.
The Saudi and three Emiratis were arrested along with five Tanzanians after last Sunday’s bombing, described by Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete as “an act of terrorism”.
It was one of the worst such incidents to hit the east African country in years.
“There are three nationals of the United Arab Emirates and a Saudi… they were arrested while trying to cross the border” into Kenya, Arusha’s governor Magesa Mulongo told AFP earlier.
In addition to the three people killed in the blast, more than 60 people were injured when attackers hurled a bomb into the compound of the newly built Saint Joseph’s Roman Catholic church.
The church was celebrating its inaugural mass at the time and was filled with worshippers.
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